Who The Heck Is Responsible For The Stupid Ruination Of Everything Wonderful About Monster High?

Was it Garrett Sander*? The other designers? The CEO? The accountants? The marketing department? Who could it be????

I just want to know who these depraved imbeciles were. Who screws something like this up so bad? Monster High was overtaking Barbie's sales until someone decided to literally ruin everything. Who was that someone?

Who came up with the idea to completely destroy the awesome original backstory, and ditch dozens of very beloved, intricate characters for something completely new that feels more juvenile? Who decided on pink-ad-nauseum overload? Who thought no more articulation or stands was a good, appealing idea? Who took the amazing, bold, special, classic artwork of the original Wave 1 boxes and decided to make cheap, ugly, boring, busy, humdrum, mundane, banal, commercialized garbage packaging? Who decided developing the personalities of the characters was unimportant?

I actually really like the new look of the movies (NOT the look of the new webisodes, which sucks compared to the original webisodes!), and they are actually funny and well made, but I do NOT like the new back story that ignores the original AWESOME backstory/premise of the original webisodes, and I DO NOT like the sudden drop of beloved old characters and the very crappy, cheap quality of the dolls, especially the lack of articulation or those weird gappy joints.

I just want someone to leak what happened behind those closed doors in El Segundo. Because this is so baffling to me my brain is literally hurting.

There was a brilliant way of managing Monster High, which is what they did at first, and then there was the completely moronic, destructive, incompetent way of handling Monster High, which has completely ruined it for everyone in a short period of time.

Thoughts? I have no ideas who would do this or why. Clearly it was NOT TO IMPROVE SALES OR CREATE POSITIVE CUSTOMER RELATIONS.

I may not have much experience running a business, or toy design, or marketing, but Mattel, you should hire me because I am not a COMPLETE DROOLING IDIOT, which would be a huge step up from whoever you currently let run the show.

*(I kind of doubt it was Garrett Sander, but what do I know? Why did he create something so perfect, only to have all his great ideas thrown in the trash and ruined? Why would he let that happen? The packaging alone is a crying shame! I heard he was making the movies now, and they do show and INCREDIBLE amount of improvement (I just watched the newest 2), both in artwork, humor, and plots that make sense and have continuity, but I miss the original premise/canon/backstory of Monster High, Frankie's original voice, etc. although I do like Cleo being less mean and annoying. But other than that!)

Did anyone else notice that Frankie went from being the main character, to the pink girl (Draculaura) is now the main character? So lame it always has to be pink and cutesy is the main focus of everything.

Replies to This Discussion

There's been a lot of speculation that it was Mattel losing the Disney princess license that triggered the change. Ever After High started to decline in quality and lighten in tone around the same time but it was never the sales juggernaut Monster High was. Something had to fill the Disney sales void and retain that customer base so Monster High got retooled.

I don't know her name but there's also a newer CEO for Mattel. There was a big changeover a year or so ago and a lot of staff went on to different things.

I know Sanders was responsible for the SDCC Robecca/Hexiciah set because he was gushing on social media about how surprised he was they let him do the metalised plastic. He also I believe designed the Shera doll.

However I do not think he's doing anything with main playline MH now.

My speculation is that Mattel got scared. See, they're used to Barbie and princesses and marketing to 6 year olds. They had a brand that was appealing to a demographic they had no idea how to market to, teenagers and I think that scared them. So slowly but surely they tried to get in the "safe" demographic, the younger kids which is their comfort zone.

Add to that a massive global recession making everything much more expensive to produce and parents with way less disposable income, the life span of a general toy line (which is about 5 years) and a need to gain new fans as older ones were "aging out", they did need to do something.

However, I do NOT believe the reboot was the correct direction.

All they achieved was alienating the last remaining fans they had and the products they're producing are so massively inferior that it's obvious just looking at them on shelves. The general public are seeing this even, because the older w1 lines are still available on shelves right next to the newer dolls! When you can see on a shelf one doll for $20 that's fully articulated and detailed and another that's on a static body with a half print dress and painted on leggings, which do you think any savy parent will buy? Consumers aren't stupid and they won't buy something they don't feel is value for money. Reboot MH isn't representing value for money.

Now, I didn't MIND the first reboot dolls. Yeah they're cuter and have less personality but they were decently constructed and had nice new bodies with molded details people had wanted from the start. They were thicker, sturdier and felt like they'd withstand play. The static bodied dolls were cheap enough to be worth it, still pretty, still had okay outfits and were a great option for the younger fans. I'd have loved that option when my eldest was young, he really liked MH but the w1 dolls were so fragile he could only play with them supervised. A cheap static bodied Lagoona would have been perfect for him.

However, that didn't last and I did very much object to the "we're retconning everything and starting over" story line. There was no reason to do that. Absolutely none.

Heck, imo a better way to deal with the reboot and bring new fans in while still appealing to old fans would have been to simply graduate the original cast of characters and start again with the next lot. Make Howleen and Twyla the main characters and bring in a bunch of characters that are in their year group.

Meanwhile Frankie and the others are all off at Monster College, they might pop in briefly for a little cameo but otherwise they're off doing other things and not the focus.

Then all the canon we'd had established would still be there, you wouldn't have the endless "where's so and so?" questions and you could start afresh without pissing people off.

You could then also have had Ari feel like a new character and not a replacement spectra so much because she'd be a younger character from a lower year group.

And here's the thing. While they've retconned the WHOLE wave 1, they haven't totally divorced from it because Dayna mentions characters from HAUNTED in her bio. Wtf? Like... WHY? Why have this sort of half hanging on thread? It's just confusing as all heck.

And then of course Mattel decided they didn't want to produce quality products, they just wanted bigger profit margins so we ended up with the "toblerone effect" on the bodies. What initially was assumed to just be a faulty design/mold turned out to be intentional, shaving off plastic around the joints to save on plastic costs and in the process making the bodies 1: Ugly as sin 2: really hard to pose and 3: fragile as all heck.

So pretty much ruining every point of even having an articulated body.

And the CONTEMPT with which Mattel treated anyone who complained about this. Good god.

I think it's pretty clear that Mattel don't actually care about producing good quality products or about their customers, they care only about profit margins and damn anyone who expects better from them.

They have no passion, no integrity and no desire to do better.

I also sincerely believe they're intentionally driving MH into the ground. This I can't explain though, but companies do it all the time. Is it a tax thing? Or is it so they can then blame the consumer when the sales totally slump?

YES! I hate the reboot SO MUCH. It makes me want to cry that I'll never again see old dolls on the shelves. I don't know anything about how companies work, but it's obvious to me that they made MH more for little kids. They took everything good out of it. No real romance, no backstory, (Remember 1814!!), no Ghoulia . . . Personally, I see the whole thing as Anti-Zombie. EVERY Single Zombie in the new movies is either evil, or just plain dumb. The music isn't good anymore either. Ari's cheesy lyrics make me sick. I actually like most of the songs pre-reboot .And the new dolls' limbs don't even bend!! Wth, Mattel, becoming cheap now are we? Argh, now I'm upset again. Glad I'm not the only one.

I wanted to buy the pack with Dracula in it, because I always thought having more parent or teacher dolls would have been really cool (Mr. Rotter was my personal favorite, and of course Mrs Kindergrubber and all the other barely mention ones, like Irene Maiden and the band director), and his face looks good, but I looked closer and noticed his stupid arms don't bend! So sick of this! That was what made Monster High unique: the poseability. You could make scenes, take pictures, even do stop motion animation if you wanted. That was far more fun and realistic than those sad, stiff dolls with only 5 points of articulation (shoulders, hips, neck). That's why I bought them. I wouldn't have bought nearly as many Monster High dolls if they were no fun like that. I still can't believe $40 bucks for a near-useless body and the head for one Dracula doll that would have been nice to have but I don't actually need (I don't need yet another Draculaura doll plus a molded plastic playset in loony, garish colors)? I don't know what's worse, that, or back when Create-A-Monsters didn't come with all the parts to make 2 complete matching dolls because some niggard (it means stingy person--look it up. Oh and the word "farding" means to apply cosmetics. Look that up too if you don't believe me. Yay vocabulary.) at Mattel decided we shouldn't get a 10 cent torso because we shouldn't be allowed to have too much fun, and half the pack should be completely useless.

Hey Mattel, these dolls are luxury goods, not necessities like shelter and clean water. We're not going to give you our hard-to-come-by paychecks for stuff we can't do much with and barely enjoy anymore anyways. It's just a big disappointment!!!!!!!

It's over anyway. Monster High will not continue into 2018, mark my words. There's just nothing more to say. It had its moment in the sun, and all good things come to an end. I think we all
knew the reboot was the beginning of the end.

But they sucked so much of the joy away. They killed the story, the nostalgia, and finally, the actual product quality. They killed the appeal.

I went to Wal-Mart today and the Monster High section was (I'll throw out a pun to keep from crying I guess) a ghost of its former self. Barely a tiny portion at the bottom 3 shelves, wedged in between the superhero girls and some play craft kits. And those same sad dolls, who will never know the joy of bending a wrist or a knee, have been sitting there, collecting dust for months.

Remember when Monster High was THE toys to ask for for Christmas? In every toy catalog and wishlist magazine? Remember when the major stores would pay Monster High to create an exclusive doll just for that store to sell? Gilda Goldstag for Target, Headless Headmistress Bloodgood and Iris Clops "I Heart Fashion" for Toys R Us, the Wolf family multipack and the Boo York multipack for Wal-Mart, etc.... That seems like not so long ago... No store would do that now. It's like Monster High is an obligatory embarrassment for the toy section that is shrinking away a little more every day...limping off to the clearance aisle to die completely.

I wonder if they have caved in to the "size acceptance " brigade and have decided to faze MH out, there have been quite a lot of attacks on Monster high dolls, they have been labelled "impossibly thin" "evil hooker dolls"...... There have even been calls to ban them in some circles. I'm not completely opposed to the Barbie fashionistas range but it is a clear nod to political correctness that is invading our lives. They say that little girls feel pressure to look like Barbie but we keep putting words and thoughts into our children's minds.

I actually happen to like Barbie and Ken's many new body shapes, but, that having been said, I don't think that the refreshing nature of the Fashionistas line should mean the end of Monster High!

Why not just re-vamp the entire Monster High line, so that new characters with new body types can be included? If Mattel really wants to be PC, they'll re-work the bodies of some of their classic MH characters, so that the entire line really, really celebrates true diversity, because, as much as the entire concept of MH has always celebrated one's "inner monster," and the idea of uniqueness, you've gotta admit that the ghouls all had / have the exact same body type.

I agree with all of you about the cheapening of the line, though! That sucks, and it shouldn't be allowed to happen. Mattel should either "Stamp it or Re-vamp it!", as in stamp it out / stamp it for destruction....or make it better!

I have to say that I am not for rampant PC within doll lines, though. For instance, I do not like the look of the "Amber Rose Fashionista" Barbie. Sorry, but I just don't, and it is in no way a racial issue, either. I just don't like what Amber Rose stands for, and I think that the designing of a Barbie that looks like her is sending an entirely wrong message to girls. At least the Fashionista in question is not an official Amber Rose Barbie. ACK! That'd be awkweird!

That's not without saying that I'm not perfect, either. I think that if any of us ran, or influenced Mattel, the doll decisions could go in so many directions, because we all have different moral and artistic standards, and the various Mattel doll lines can only represent so many of them at a time.

The "Man Bun Ken", though, is one doll that I will be getting, in one form or another! He's too cool!

Yep you do make a good point about the ghouls all having the same body type, I always wished Abbey would be a lot taller than the others I mean she is a yeti and i'd like to see a furry Clawdeen. They managed to make Manny different and Lorna Mcnessie with her fantastic scaly skin and paddled tail. I think they need to make some new characters because there is only so many Frankies or Dracs a child wants, they should do an alien line, you could have a friendly reptilian, a Nordic, grey girl, your imagination could run wild. They could have daughter of a demon and call her "Lucy ferr" probably a bit controversial though haha.